Skip to content

John and Lauren's Adventures

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
T-shirt Twins

T-shirt Twins

  • Home
  • About
    • SayYesMore
    • Guest Blogs
    • Supporters
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Work With Us

Guest Blogs

This is where we’re going to put all of our guest blogs. We like writing guest blogs as it helps us reach more people with our message!

SayYesMore: 3 simple ways to make your digital content more accessible

GetOutside:AdventuresWithSightloss

SayYesMore: The time we almost regretted saying yes

Recent Posts

  • GoTri Skipton
  • We’ve entered a Triathlon
  • Introducing our new adventure tandem: Santos DoubleTravel
  • Wake Up Wild by the sea
  • What should you do if you have a big idea?

Newsletter

Would you like to receive very occasional updates on our adventures? You can unsubscribe at any time, and there will never be any spam.

Tags

adventure backpacking bear grylls bike camping canoe challenge climbing crabbing daisy guidedog lake district london norfolk Paddle peak district planning poole review santos sayyesmore snorkeling swimming tandem trad triathlon wales walking waterfalls wild wildcamping winterton Yorkshire

Instagram

  • After our little stop off in Porto it’s been back at sea for a few days. Somehow it’s our last day on the ship and we are due to anchor close to Lisbon for the night. The seas have once again been rough, but perhaps not as rough as before and after motoring west for a while, we turned south and have actually been under sail most of the time since. Generally the sails help with the bounciness of the ship, but in return you get a lot more list (lean/tilt). We’re both on opposite sides of the ship so we’ve have differing opinions on which side of tilt is best. We both prefer rolling in, rather than out of bed! We’ve started to get pretty tired the last few days. Every day at sea seems to take a little more energy from us than we can restore. There’s always so much to do and in a place where the ground is constantly shifting, your body is constantly having to shift and adjust too. It all adds up. We’ve had night watches of late. 4am-midnight. Midnight to 4am. 4am to 8am. Between these shifts there have been sails to set and yards to brace. Most of our mornings have also involved handing sails which makes it hard to get any rest. On watch, breakfast, morning meeting, happy hour (cleaning the ship), smoko (morning break), handing sails, lunch, rest then another watch. Good sleep is hard to come by in rough seas and it’s definitely taking it’s toll. We have had a couple of opportunities to climb out onto the bow sprit which has been cool. Lying down on a net with the sea below. It’s actually one of the most comfortable places on the ship. We’ve also climbed the mast at sea (and we’re late for supper as a result) but it was such a good place to enjoy the only sunset we’ve seen all trip. We’re told by those who have been on trips before that this has been a tough one. Even the captain has described it as an endurance test! Looking forward go getting our feet back on dry land! #AdventuresWithSightloss @theyestribe @wyattandjack
  • We’ve been at sea the last few days and well away from any coastline. We had a tricky start, setting off in close a gale and with a strong tide which was rocking us side to side. Seasickness has been a problem, more so for John who, if we’re being honest, had been a touch emotional. Feeling like you are going to die can do that to a person! He certainly hasn’t been the only one. The good news is that we’ve had some calmer weather and we’ve both got our sea legs, as have most people on the ship. The amount of people arriving for meals is a good indication of that. What have we been up to? Well, we’ve both done a few watches now which is where our small team (watch) helms the ship and keeps a look out. We had a busy midnight-4am watch in the English Channel with lots of ships about. Lauren messed up the steering a bit and scared another boat 😂 John had a go on a later watch using the talking compass with good success! We’ve also had mess duty and have climbed the masts and yards to stow the sails (we’ve had a headwind). When we change direction we often have to move the yards into the opposite direction. Lots of pulling on ropes! Because of his sea sickness, John missed his mess duty. He’ll have another chance! We’re all good and we are enjoying ourselves now the sea sickness has passed (mostly). Yesterday was a very tough day pushing into a headwind with the engines. The sails have been up a while now which calms things down a bit. Helpful in a force 7-8. We’re going to stop somewhere in Spain today to let the storm we’ve been running away from pass before continuing down to Lisbon. The captain said we might spend a night or two in Porto too!
  • Today we’ve had a breezy climb up the masts. We’re still at the port at the moment and the plan is to leave but there is a strong wind blowing us into the berth. We might not be able leave today but the plan is to give it a go! We’re on watch today from 12.30 and John is on mess duty.
  • We’re on Tenacious and have spent much of the afternoon training. We’ve been learning about watches, the daily routine and evacuation procedures. We should be leaving the port at 11.30 tomorrow after some mast climbing. Jakob, from Denmark, who is also blind and is on our watch. He’s just given John the blind guided tour of the ship. There are ‘guide lines’ over the floors which can be followed and some tactile markers so you can work out which end of the ship is which. Once we’re on the move we won’t have any signal but we’ll update as and when we can! #AdventuresWithSightloss
  • Let the adventure begin! Earlier this year we sat eating an icecream in front of this tall ship. Today we will be stepping aboard bound for Lisbon. Our journey will take 14 days. We don’t know much about what we’ll be doing and we have a million questions like is there a plank you can walk? is there WiFi? Where will we sleep? We expect our questions will all be answered very soon! You can track the ship (Tenacious) here: https://jst.org.uk/ship-tracking/ #AdventuresWithSightloss #SayYesMore @theyestribe @jubileesailingtrust @wyattandjack
  • Another lovely weekend spent at @theyesbus
  • Together with @guidedogdaisy we sometimes help out at film showings in #Birmingham. Next up is @ukreelrock on the 20th of November at the crescent theatre #AdventuresWithSightloss @oceanfilmfestuk
  • So happy to announce that John has made it on to the 2019 Shaw Trust disability power 100 list. Not just for being one half of the T-shirt Twins, but also for his work as a Trustee for @deafblindukcharity and by challenging perceptions about what it is possible by visiting schools. ‘’Being blind or disabled doesn’t mean you can’t have adventures’’ See the full list here: http://disabilitypower100.com Thanks to all the people that make our adventures possible! #AdventuresWithSightloss @theyestribe @litelokuk @santosbikesnl @wyattandjack @andreaboldrini_official @dmm_wales @talkingheadsetsltd @beargrylls
  • We’re in Westminster today but we can’t say why for just a little bit longer! Lots of (peaceful) protests here today.
  • Still buzzing from completing our first triathlon. A few days prior we sent in an apology because we weren’t going to be attending. Vans were broken, we had nowhere to stay and we’d already driven to Yorkshire once last week.. but we had a bit of good fortune, a working van. The rest however was down to us! With no fixed plan of where to stay, what to do with the bike, we trundled down to skipton. More luck again, the leisure centre had a little porch for our bike. We bedded down in our van (quite soundly knowing our bike was secured with our new @litelokuk locks) and slept till it was time to swim, cycle, run! 🏊‍♂️ 🏊‍♀️ 🚲 🚲 🏃‍♂️ 🏃‍♀️ the point is, a lot of good can come when you #SayYesMore , keep positive and go for it! @wyattandjack @bemilitaryfit @theyestribe
Follow us
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Karuna by Automattic.